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Friday, February 13, 2015

The Kidnapping of Tony Stephens from Earl Shilton

Earl Shilton is a fairly nondescript village in Leicestershre ... But in 1959 and 1960, suggests this startling film from the British Pathé collection, it was in the headlines ...

This film ... shows the return home to Earl Shilton of 12-year-old Tony Stephens after having been kidnapped and kept on the Continent for 15 months.

The commentary says that the boy's father, a milkman, gave up his job and searched Europe for him and the film shows an art master, Kevin Tracey, being taken off to Hinckley to be questioned.

So I blogged about this case after discovering the film five years ago,

Now The Needle has published some cuttings to do with the affair, including this one from The Times about the subsequent court case.